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Creative pupil Fikunmi Daniel at Fir Tree Primary School in Newbury wins shoebox garden competition from David Wilson Homes




A creative pupil at a Newbury primary school has won a competition to design a garden in a shoebox put on by a housing developer.

David Wilson Homes challenged students at Fir Tree Primary School – which is close to its Donnington Heights housing development – to get their ecology hats on and design miniature gardens that would be a thriving ecosystem.

The winner of the competition was Year 5 pupil Fikunmi Daniel, whose shoebox was filled with a range of wildlife-friendly features mirroring a pond, a rockery and lots of grass and shrubs.

Fikunmi Daniel with the competition-winning shoebox at Fir Tree Primary School
Fikunmi Daniel with the competition-winning shoebox at Fir Tree Primary School

Leanne Hendry, Year 5 teaching assistant at Fir Tree, said: “Fikunmi created his garden as part of a project during our after-school STEM club.

“He carefully considered the features he would include in his garden and how this would create habitats for various creatures, before unleashing his creativity to assemble it.”

After being chosen as the winner of the garden in a shoebox competition, Fikunmi was awarded an art set by David Wilson Homes.

In celebrating a national partnership with the RSPB, the housebuilder is committed to giving nature a home at its developments.

Fikunmi's creative wildlife-friendly garden was a worthy competition winner
Fikunmi's creative wildlife-friendly garden was a worthy competition winner

At Donnington Heights specifically, David Wilson Homes plans to plant around 250 new trees across the development, as well as an additional wildflower meadow area, which will help to support native pollinators including bees, butterflies and moths.

In order to help the development provide a home for living creatures, the housebuilder will also be installing 12 bird and bat boxes and a number of hedgehog highways, and scattering several bee-friendly plants across the site.

Emma Hawkins, sales director at Hungerford-based David Wilson Homes Southern, said: “As a leading housebuilder, sustainability is at the forefront of our minds when designing new developments and it was fantastic to see the pupils of Fir Tree Primary School embrace the objective in our competition.

“There were some incredible entries and the standards were extremely high, but we congratulate Fikunmi for a standout design.”



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